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Philosophy > Courses

Courses

Department of Philosophy

Courses from the 2012-2013 Millsaps Catalog. See a list of all current classes.

1000 Introduction to Philosophy (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the classic problems and methods of philosophy, including topics such as logic, critical thinking, the existence of God, the basis of knowledge, human nature, the mind/body problem, free will, ethics, the meaning of life, and some applied moral problems. Offered every year.

1010 Introduction to Critical Thinking and Writing (4 sem. hours). An introduction to basic reasoning and critical skills focusing on learning how to determine whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment on a claim depending on how much evidence and valid argumentation supports it. The course includes learning how to detect arguments, how to detect non argumentative psychological persuasion, how to detect faulty reasoning, how to judge statistical claims, how to judge polls and surveys, how to judge the quality of an experimental scientific study, how to analyze everyday forms of persuasion (in journalism, advertising, politics, and personal conversations), how to apply the specific standards of aesthetic, legal, and moral reasoning, and how to write clear, coherent, well-argued and well-supported essays and reports. Offered occasionally.

2000 Ways of Knowing (4 sem. hours). An introduction to theories of knowledge from a variety of philosophical traditions, including topics such as mysticism, empiricism, rationalism, skepticism, pragmatism, and feminism. Offered occasionally.

2010 Social and Political Philosophy (4 sem. hours). An introduction to theories and problems of social and political organization, with special emphasis on the concepts
of government, justice, punishment, family, property, work, and peace. This course is the same as Political Science 2500. Offered occasionally.

2100 Ethics: Theories and Applications (4 sem. hours). An introduction to moral philosophy, including topics such as metaethics (the definition of good and evil, the
source of morality, morality's relationship to religion and biology, the proper goals of human life), ethical theory (the importance of consequences versus duties, virtue versus right and wrong, the ethical theories of Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Mill, Kant, Nietzsche, feminists, evolutionists), and applied ethics (abortion, euthanasia, death penalty, privacy rights, biotechnology, gay rights, animal rights, racism, sexism, multiculturalism, military policy, and others). Offered occasionally.

2110 Biomedical Ethics (4 sem. hours). An introduction to conceptual and ethical issues concerning medicine and biotechnology, including topics such as the definition of
death and disease, the definition of personhood, abortion, euthanasia, genetic engineering, reproductive technology, patients' rights, human and animal research, organ transplants, cloning, biotechnological enhancement, and health care rights. Offered occasionally.

2120 Environmental Ethics (4 sem. hours). An introduction to conceptual and ethical issues concerning the environment, including topics such as the definition of "nature" and "technology," major types of environmentalism, green politics, wilderness preservation and restoration, deforestation, animal rights, transgenic crops, pesticides, population control, pollution, and sustainable practices. Offered occasionally.

2130 Business Ethics (4 sem. hours). An introduction to conceptual and ethical issues concerning business, including topics such as the responsibilities of businesses,
obligations to employees, customer, community, environment, and shareholders, issues of fair wages, outsourcing, international employment, product safety, corporate culture, mission statements and ethics codes, whistle-blowing, marketing and truth in advertising, intellectual property rights, information technology and privacy, unions and workers' rights, litigation and legal liability, discrimination and affirmative action, accounting and fraud, ethical investing, corporate takeovers, and general ethical issues of capitalism, socialism, and commercialism. Offered occasionally.

2140 Sexual Ethics (4 sem. hours). An introduction to conceptual and ethical issues concerning sexuality and sexual practices, including topics such as the problem
of defining sex, gender, and sexual orientation, and moral and legal issues of consent, rape, sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, natural law and perversion, premarital intercourse, marriage and adultery, monogamy and polygamy, homosexuality, masturbation, pedophilia, prostitution, sadomasochism, pornography and obscenity, paraphilia, reproductive technology, sexual surgery, body image and advertising, and the role of the state in sexual regulation. Offered occasionally.

2200 Philosophy of Human Nature (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the nature of human beings, including topics such as whether there is a universal human nature,
types of explanations of human nature (religious, psychological, biological), whether humans are essentially different from animals or machines, the importance of gender in shaping human identity, the source of human morality and politics (religion, rationality, evolution), the role of the unconscious, the limitations of humans' ability to understand themselves, and whether human nature could be
changed. Offered occasionally.

2210 Aesthetics (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the nature of art and specific art forms, aesthetic experience and judgment, and relations between the aesthetic values and other kinds of values (moral, political, religious, etc.). Offered occasionally.

2220 Philosophy and Literature (4 sem. hours). A study of various works of literature with an eye to issues such as the nature and function of language, perception and reality, self and the spoken word, theories of meaning, and texts and subtexts. Authors considered include Beckett, Borges, Pinter, Gass, O'Connor, DeLillo, Robbe-Grillet, Abish, Woolf, and others. Offered occasionally.

2230 Philosophy of Happiness (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the conceptual, ethical, and psychological issues of happiness, including topics such as the proper role of happiness in life, the issue of happiness as an ultimate goal, the definition of happiness, the best ways to achieve happiness, the question of whether happiness is possible, the relationship between happiness and morality, scientific studies of happiness, the rise of positive psychology, mood-altering drugs, conceptual issues of mental health, and criticisms of happiness including issues of the value of misery, suffering, and depression. Offered occasionally.

2240 Philosophy of Violence (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the conceptual, ethical, and psychological issues of violence, including topics such as violence that has traditionally been hard for people to pay attention to because of its horrific nature, the politics and physiology of torture, the machines and structures of war, the inflammatory writings of sexual deviant Sade, and the forgotten history of what is today called "trauma." Two populations that emerge for our studies are male survivors with combat trauma and female survivors of rape and domestic abuse. Offered occasionally.

2250 Philosophy of Film (4 sem. hours). A study of issues in the formation of personal and social experience through the mediation of film, using historically important films and film theories along with philosophers as primary sources. Offered occasionally.

2260 Philosophy of Technology (4 sem. hours). An introduction to the conceptual and ethical issues of technology, including topics such as problems in defining technology, nature, culture, and artificiality, the relationship between human nature and technology, how technology affects culture and history, how technology mediates human experience and social interaction, political dimensions of technology, and science, technology and the environment, technology and religion, and applied issues of computers, transportation, communications, biotechnology, medicine, military applications, robotics and artificial intelligence, globalism, environmentalism, transhumanism, luddism, and representations of technology in literature and film. Offered occasionally.

2400 The Meaning of Work (crosslisted with FWRK 2400) (4 sem. hours). An investigation into the phenomenon that is arguably at the foundation of human civilization and the human psyche: work. The course explores issues of value, purpose, function, organization, and justice in relation to the meaning of work from a variety of perspectives, including philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology, and management. Offered every year.

2750–2753 Special Topics (1–4 sem. hours). A sophomore level course on special issues not regularly covered by the curriculum. Special topics courses offered in the last few years include: Gender and Technology, Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Time, Philosophy of War, Personal Identity, Philosophy of Mental Illness, The Concept of God, and Pragmatism. Usually at least one special topics course is offered each semester. The topics vary widely and new courses are routinely created. Offered occasionally.

2900 Logic (4 sem. hours). An introduction to propositional logic and quantification, and to a lesser extent syllogistic logic. Attention will be given to scientific method and induction and to informal analysis of arguments in language. Offered every year.

3010 History of Philosophy I (4 sem. hours). A survey of Western philosophy from the ancient through the medieval period. Philosophy 3010 is the same as Classics 3340. This course does not function as an introduction to philosophy; students are strongly advised to take it only if they have had Heritage or a Core course with a philosophy focus or another philosophy course other than Logic. Offered every year.

3020 History of Philosophy II (4 sem. hours). A survey of Western philosophy from the Renaissance through the 20th century. This course does not function as an introduction to philosophy; students are strongly advised to take it only if they have had Heritage or a Core course with a philosophy focus or another philosophy course other than Logic. Students are also strongly advised to take PHIL 3010 before taking this course. Offered every year.

3030 Twentieth Century Philosophy (4 sem. hours). An examination of one or more 20th Century philosophical movements such as phenomenology, analytic philosophy, existentialism, pragmatism, process philosophy, critical theory, poststructuralism, and postmodernism. Offered occasionally.

3100 Philosophy of Science (4 sem. hours). An examination of the nature, goals, and process of scientific inquiry including topics such as deduction and induction, inference to the best explanation, problems of experimental method, skepticism in the epistemology of science, the nature of hypothetical entities, statistical generalization, pseudo-science, pragmatism and the relation between science and truth, and the relation between science and religion. Offered occasionally.

3120 Philosophy of Mind (4 sem. hours). An examination of the nature of mind, including topics such as mental versus physical explanations of minds, perception, optical and cognitive illusions, the limits of human knowledge, personal identity, artificial intelligence, evolutionary explanations of moral and religious beliefs, and thought experiments about zombies, brains in vats, brain implants, and robot civil rights. Offered occasionally.

3130 Philosophy of the Body (4 sem. hours). An examination of the concept of the body from philosophical perspectives such as Cartesian dualism, mechanism, idealism, phenomenology, gender theory, disability theory, and enhancement theory. Also covers applied issues such as perception, public policy, ethical issues, and body image. Offered occasionally.

3140 Philosophy of Religion (4 sem. hours). An examination of issues arising from religious experience and beliefs, including topics such as the arguments for and against the existence of God, the nature of the divine, the problem of evil, and human destiny. (Same as Religious Studies 3310.) Offered in alternate years.

3150 Creation and Evolution (4 sem. hours). A study of the concepts of divine world creation and natural evolution including such topics as how they originated in various forms, how they are applicable to our experience, and how they relate to each other, with attention to current controversies on the topic such as the debate on teaching intelligent design and evolutionary theory. Offered occasionally.

3160 Philosophy of Language (4 sem. hours). An examination of the nature, function, and conceptual issues of language and language use, including questions such as: What is it to speak? What is meaning? What can have meaning? What is it to listen and understand? Is language trustworthy or misleading? How does language affect personal and social existence? Why are we sometimes able to instantly understand novel complex expressions and yet often cannot resolve the meaning of apparently simply expressions? What was the "linguistic turn" in philosophy and how has it shaped thinking? Offered occasionally.

3750–3753 Special Topics (1–4 sem. hours). A junior level course on special issues not regularly covered by the curriculum. Special topics courses offered in the last few years include: Gender and Technology, Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Time, Philosophy of War, Personal Identity, Philosophy of Mental Illness, The Concept of God, and Pragmatism. Usually at least one special topics course is offered each semester. The topics vary widely and new courses are routinely created. Offered occasionally.

3850-3853 Internship (1-4 sem. Hours). Applied analysis, practical experience, and training with selected research, educational, governmental, legal, medical, religious, artistic, or business institutions. Prerequisite: Arrangement with specific instructor to direct the internship. Offered every semester.

4000 Epistemology (4 sem. hours). An examination of the theory of knowledge including topics such as rationalism, empiricism, skepticism, pragmatism, logical positivism, analytic philosophy, feminism, deconstruction, neurobiology, rationality and irrationality, truth and value, and cognitive error. Offered occasionally.

4010 Metaphysics (4 sem. hours). An examination of traditional philosophical questions about "being" and the nature of reality such as, but not limited to: What is reality? Do I have free will? Is there a God? What kind of thing am I? The course may either survey the history of metaphysics or cover one or two philosophers or issues in detail. Offered occasionally.

4020 Ethical Theory and Metaethics (4 sem. hours). An examination of classical and contemporary theories of ethics including topics such as the basic concepts of ethical decision making, issues in cognitive moral perception, how to analyze moral issues, relativism, moral skepticism, egoism, utilitarianism, deontological ethics, virtue ethics, care ethics, rights theory, the law and ethics, religion and ethics, evolutionary theory and ethics, moral insanity and disease, and selected applied ethical issues. Offered occasionally.

4750–4753 Special Topics (1–4 sem. hours). A senior level course on special issues not regularly covered by the curriculum. Special topics courses offered in the last few years include: Gender and Technology, Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Time, Philosophy of War, Personal Identity, Philosophy of Mental Illness, The Concept of God, and Pragmatism. Usually at least one special topics course is offered each semester. The topics vary widely and new courses are routinely created. Offered occasionally.

4800–4803 Directed Study (1-4 sem. hours). Intensive individual study on a topic of the student's and professor's choosing. Prerequisite: Arrangement with specific instructor to direct the study. Offered every semester.

4901 Senior Planning (1 sem. hour). Career planning, graduate school preparation, related standardized testing, and completion of an in-depth prospectus for the comprehensive exam essay. Since the comprehensive exam is administered through the Senior Seminar, this course is open only to those completing the philosophy major. Students are strongly encouraged to finish History of Philosophy I and II before taking Senior Seminar. Offered every year.

4900 Senior Seminar (4 sem. hours). Intensive reading in selected issues, schools, and thinkers and the completion of the comprehensive exam essay. Since the comprehensive exam is administered through the Senior Seminar, this course is open only to those completing the philosophy major. Students are strongly encouraged to finish History of Philosophy I and II before taking Senior Seminar. Students are required to finish Senior Planning before taking Senior Seminar. Offered every year.